A Journalist's Deadly Quest to Save the Amazon | How To Academy

Mon, 23 June 2025

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm BST

A Journalist’s Deadly Quest to Save the Amazon

Jon Watts In Conversation with Edie Lush

Guardian Global Environment Editor Jon Watts joins us to speak about the Amazon rainforest, indigenous activism, and the legacy of his close friend Dom Phillips.

On 5 June 2022, award-winning journalist Dom Phillips was working on a book about the Amazon rainforest, alongside the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, when they were both shot dead. They are believed to have been assassinated by one of the criminal networks whose ecological exploitation they were working to expose.

A team of expert writers took up his partially completed manuscript, committed to his mission of uncovering the truth about deforestation and searching for solutions. This team was led by Jonathan Watts, Global Environment Editor for The Guardian, who joins How To Academy to tell a remarkable story. It is a story of fires, land grabs and 400 billion trees; of corruption, crime and murder; and of friendship, compassion and dedication. 

Jon will speak with award-winning journalist Edie Lush as they grapple with the questions: why is the Amazon so important to life on earth, how can we save it, and how many more of its defenders must die before we do?  

Tickets to this online event are free for members of How To +.

Praise for Dom Phillips’ How to Save the Amazon:

‘This book is the best possible tribute to a martyred colleague—these writers have helped finish the work he couldn’t, offering a picture of this crucial place and suggesting some of the ways we might still help it to survive.’ – Bill McKibben, Co-founder of 350.org

‘How to Save the Amazon is a work of courage interrupted by tragedy. It is a tribute to Dom Phillips’ passion and open-heartedness that his friends came together to finish his work.’ – Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction

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Jonathan Watts

Global Environment Editor for The Guardian

Jonathan Watts is an author and journalist based in the Amazon rainforest. He is global environment editor for The Guardian and founder of the Rainforest Journalism Fund and Sumaúma.com. A veteran foreign correspondent previously based in Tokyo, Beijing and Rio de Janeiro, Jonathan covered two tsunamis, three earthquakes, one cyclone, two bombings, a G8 conference, two world cups, three Olympics and interviewed numerous state leaders. He is now living on the climate and biodiversity frontline in the Amazonian town of Altamira, and he led a team of writers to finish How to Save the Amazon – the book started by his murdered friend, British journalist Dom Phillips.

Edie Lush

Award-winning Journalist and Broadcaster

Edie Lush is an award-winning journalist, an events MC and a communication trainer. She hosts events around the world — from the World Economic Forum in Davos to the COP Climate Summits. She has hosted several podcasts including Global GoalsCast, made in collaboration with the United Nations. She has been the Economics and Political correspondent for Bloomberg Television, a columnist at The Week magazine and the Associate Editor of Spectator Business magazine. Her work has appeared in many publications including Prospect, the Spectator and the BBC. She runs her own business providing senior Leaders, Influencers, Academics and Executives with Communication training — focusing now on increasing impact in both online and in person appearances.